Stav Lemkin has closed the book on his first season in the Netherlands with a strikingly candid verdict on how it began. In an interview with Twente's club magazine De Twaalfde Man, the 23-year-old Israel defender said of the coach who gave him his debut: "It was as if the trainer waited for my first mistake, a first chance to take me out. I was not the player he wanted, I think."
The mistrust, Lemkin said, was something he sensed from pre-season onwards, and it surfaced on the opening weekend. Handed his Eredivisie debut away to PEC Zwolle in August, he was substituted at half-time of a 1-0 defeat.
The team fared little better than its new signing. Three points from the first four league matches left the club bottom-heavy in the table and the board out of patience, and Joseph Oosting was dismissed on 4 September 2025.
Lemkin was careful not to reduce the poor start to one man's decisions. "There were many new players, and at first it was as if we were all individualists," he reflected, describing a dressing room of strangers still searching for a common idea. Even so, he admitted feeling a measure of sympathy for Oosting when the club decided to act.
The change transformed both the team and the defender's place in it. John van den Brom was confirmed as head coach on 15 September 2025, and under the veteran Dutchman the centre-back went from expendable to indispensable, establishing himself as a regular starter and finishing the campaign with 26 league appearances. "After the change, things improved very quickly," Lemkin said, "and you got the feeling that you were playing with your best friends, or with family."
The turnaround carried the club from crisis to a European place, and Lemkin reserved particular warmth for the supporters who filled the stadium through both halves of the season. "The results were good and we are wonderfully supported by our fans. The atmosphere in the stadium is incredible, and they are always clearly present at away matches," he said. "It is nice that we could also make them happy by reaching European football."
The season completes a rapid ascent for the Tel Aviv-born defender, who came through at Maccabi and Hapoel Tel Aviv before joining Shakhtar Donetsk in 2023. After a season back at Maccabi on loan, Twente paid the Ukrainian club a reported fee of around 1.5 million euros in June 2025 to sign him on a three-year contract, and the investment now looks shrewd for a player who has also won ten senior caps for Israel.
For all the vindication of the second half of his season, Lemkin insists the story is not finished, saying he knows he can still improve. His conclusion, though, was unambiguous: "I am really happy here, and glad that I get to play for this club."
